The Watch and the Ring
by DeadPigeon
Summary: This will be a companion piece. The short story "The Watch" will be first, to be followed by "The Ring." Want to know what its all about? You'll have to read to find out! Enjoy! "The Watch" is complete. CHAPTER 1 OF "THE RING" IS NOW POSTED!
1. Prologue

**The Watch **(Prologue)

It took 4.5 billion years and the help of massive earth movers, gargantuan trucks and vicious  
contraptions that broke, crushed and pulverized, heated, melted, fused and forged, to take  
what once had no concept of time, place or of existence, and to transform it into a finite  
instrument capable of only one thing. Measuring time.

Metal combined with glass and polished to a high sheen, it was an inanimate object made animate  
by a rotor, a series of gears and a mainspring that was imbued with the life force of its wearer, by the  
swing of the arm that kept it beating out a constant rhythm, by the warmth of the skin and the thin  
film of sweat that formed where it rested and then migrated into its crevices to become part of its  
whole. The daily cadence of the wearer transferred to its parts. Seventeen revolutions spent in motion  
and seven revolutions spent in a darkened drawer awaiting the return of the vitality that made it part  
of something more. It was needed. It served a purpose. It existed to measure the passage of time  
against a life's worth of accomplishments.


	2. Part I

**Part I**

They rode home from the ER in silence, each lost in their own thoughts over what had happened.  
Kate kept glancing over at him in the passenger seat, watching as he rubbed at the splint on his  
left wrist. She was checking to make sure he was ok. He said he was. It was only a fracture, but  
it still scared her. She had never seen him hurt before. Not like this. She was relieved when he  
told her that it wasn't broken, but it could have been much worse. It could have been his head.

Castle kept rubbing at the splint on his left wrist. It didn't hurt as much anymore; the pain medication  
they'd given him helped with that. He rubbed some more. There was a thought that was nagging at  
the back of his mind. He was forgetting something, something about what had happened, something  
important.

…

**Five hours earlier….**

They thought they had their suspect cornered in the abandoned warehouse, but he had managed to  
find an exit to an alleyway, and that's where they lost him. Only he wasn't lost, he was hiding. He  
emerged from behind a pile of rubbish wielding a three foot section of pipe, hell bent on attacking  
Kate. Castle charged him without thinking. The man turned on him at the last second and brought  
the pipe down. He would probably joke later that it was his incredible ninja like skills that had saved  
him, and they would both laugh off the underlying reality that would never be spoken, that it was  
sheer dumb luck and the instinct for self preservation that saved his head from being split open like  
a melon.

He wasn't armed, so his brilliant plan was to tackle the man before he could take a swing, or at least  
to get in close and limit his range of motion. He realized soon after committing to his action, that he  
wasn't going to make it in time to do either. It was during that brief moment of realization that it  
happened…he tripped. He never saw what it was that he tripped over, but it saved him. It caused his  
body to twist to his right, and as his right arm went down to catch himself his left arm automatically  
flew up over his head; and that was how his wrist, and not his head, received the full force of the blow  
…because he had tripped. The next few moments were a jumbled mix of noise and pain. The tinkle of  
breaking glass, the clink of metal on metal, a gunshot, someone screaming, was that him or was it the  
perp? How could a blow to his arm hurt all the way down to his toes? It was excruciating. All he could  
do was writhe on the ground with his arm hugged tight against his chest and wait for the pain to end,  
for the nausea to pass and for the focus to return to his vision.

The first thing could see was Kate's face, and he'd never seen her looking so scared. He wanted to tell  
her not to worry, that he'd be ok, but all that came out of his mouth was something between a howl  
and a moan. She had her phone out in an instant, placing a call to dispatch. What he heard next had  
him smiling through the pain.

The smile, when it flickered across his face, only infuriated her as she hung up her phone.

"Jesus, Castle! What the hell are you smiling about? You almost got yourself killed!"

"…heard…you." He squeaked out, his voice unsteady.

"What?"

He focused less on the pain and more on his voice, but it was still a struggle. "I heard… you….you said… _Officer down_."

"What?" She looked confused. "No I didn't."

He wanted to smile again, this time at her confusion, but the pain won out instead. It didn't matter; all that  
mattered was that he had heard it, and he was never going to forget. .

….

Kate spent the next seven minutes trying to get him out of the ball he was knotted in so that she could get  
a better look at his arm. He wasn't having it. When three ambulances, a fire truck and half the police force  
arrived at their location, Kate realized what she had done. It took four of the EMT's, and a shot of morphine  
to do what she couldn't. She watched as the sleeve of his jacket and dress shirt were cut from his arm and  
tossed to the ground. His watch soon followed.

She could see his arm as they worked on it, and heard him cry out every time they poke or prodded. Other  
than a horrible mottling of colors that seem to grow and change before her eyes, she saw no deformity to  
his arm, no bones sticking out…that was a relief. She waited until he was secure in the back of the ambulance  
before she jumped inside. The EMT's gave her a glance.

"Can you give me a second with him guys?" She flashed her badge in case they were wondering who she was.  
They stepped out, and waited by the back doors.

She hated to do this. "Castle?"

He looked her way. "Mmmm?"

His eyes were glassy and he looked like he could drift off at any moment. _Dammit! How much morpine did they give him? _

"Castle, I need you to listen to me."

He smiled back at her.

"I need you to focus on what I'm saying. Ok?"

"…'k…" His eye lids drooped. She shook him.

"I can't come with you. I want to, I really, really want to, but I can't." She could feel the tears at the back of her eyes  
trying to push themselves forward. She closed her eyes to force them to stay.

She couldn't go with him. She had to stay behind and take responsibility for the man she'd just shot…for the man she'd  
shot and killed while trying to protect her partner. She knew she'd done the right thing. Shoot for effect, not to wound,  
that's how they trained her at the academy, but she knew there would be questions. He wasn't her partner, and he  
definitely wasn't an officer down. Why did things have to be so complicated?

"Kate…Kate?"

She opened her eyes and found him staring at her, struggling to stay focused.

"Castle…" A solitary tear stole its way out and escaped down her cheek.

"…s'ok…s'ok…go."

She leaned down and kissed him on the lips and then whispered quietly against his cheek. "I'll come get you."

He managed to mumble out a quick "_luv you" _as she turned to go. She jumped out the back of the ambulance and walked  
away. She couldn't stop and look back; if she did she'd probably lose it. She did find herself stopping though, but not to  
look back, something on the ground caught her eye. She reached down, picked it up and sighed. It was another broken  
piece of her life, and judging by how it looked, it was one thing that she could never, ever fix.

* * *

_Authors note:_

_Part III coming soon, so stay tuned! If you need something else to read while waiting for the next chapter, check out  
__my story "Atlantic City". It'll give you some idea of what happened at Ryan's impromptu bachelor party!_


	3. Part II

**The Watch (Part II)**

He had waited. God knows for how long. It normally took the guys from Internal Affairs  
about an hour to investigate an officer involved shooting, but when Captain Gates showed  
up at he scene, on her day off, Kate knew that the woman was there to make her life hell.  
They had been walking on eggshells around each other for the past two months, especially  
since it was the Chief of Detectives who'd made a personal visit to her apartment, told her  
that he refused her resignation and gave her back her badge. She knew the Captain was  
just looking for a reason to take it again. Well if Gates wanted it, she wasn't going to give  
it up so easily this time.

When Kate finally made it to the hospital, nearly five hours later, she found Rick fast asleep,  
slumped down in an uncomfortable looking chair in the ER waiting room. He didn't have to  
wait; he could have called her and taken a taxi home, but he had waited…for her. Was this  
going to be a running theme throughout their relationship? Was he always going to be  
waiting for her? It had to stop.

He woke when she brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen down over his forehead; he  
looked up at her and smiled. He smiled! _Damn, the man had the patience of a saint!_ She  
held out her hand and he took it.

"Come on, let's go home." The corners of his eyes crinkled when she said _home._

It still felt strange when she said it, but considering how much time she spent there and how  
little she spent at her own apartment, she might as well start calling it home. It was home.

….

What was it? He knew there was something he was forgetting. He rubbed at the splint some more, deretmined to...

That's it! It had only been a brief sound amidst a cacophony of sounds, but it helped him to  
remember. Crap! Where was it? Where was it? He felt around with his good hand in the  
dismembered jacket that lay in his lap. He searched in the two bottom pockets, in the breast  
pocket, nothing! Next, he felt the front pockets of his pants.

"Where is it? Where did it go?" He wasn't asking her, but she had been watching his frantic  
movements and wondered what was going on.

"What are you…"

"Have you seen it? Have you seen my watch?"

Oh, that.

She didn't reply, not right away.

"We have to go back; we have to go back to the alley." He voice was panicked. "…or maybe  
check in the ambulance…"

"Castle." She knew where it was.

"…or maybe at the hospital."

"Castle!"

"Huh?" He looked over and watched as her right hand slipped into in her jacket pocket.

She pulled out his watch, or rather what was left of his watch, and held it out to him. A tiny piece  
fell out and landed with a quiet 'plink' onto the seat of the car. His face fell with the part.

He gingerly took it from her. "Not my watch!"

"It's a good thing it was your watch, or your arm would probably be broken." She replied.

"But it was a part of me; it was a part of us!"

She wrinkled her brow at his statement. "What are you talking about?"

"I bought this watch right after we met. I bought it for you."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Well, I didn't buy it _for_ you,_ per se_; I bought it to impress you."

She rolled her eyes.

"…only you never noticed."

She snickered. That wasn't true, but she wasn't telling.

She laughed, but he was serious.

"It's a part of us Kate. It's been with us through everything."

She thought he was being a bit melodramatic.

"…your exploding apartment, the freezer, our dip in the Hudson…"

She snicker again before adding, "…your trip to the Hamptons with Gina."

He cut her a glare and continued, "…the hanger…the funeral."

_Oh shit. _He was really serious about this.

She needed to apologize, and quick. She wanted to reach for his hand, to give it a squeeze, but  
seeing the splint…that wasn't possible, so reached over and placed her hand on his cheek.

"I'm sorry."

He captured her hand with his good one and pulled it to his lips, giving it a brief kiss. "I know."  
He gave her a smile.

Yes, it was ok. She relaxed, and then she stuck her foot in her mouth again.

"How about we go this weekend and I'll help you look for a new one."

That set him off.

"I don't want to get a new one! I want this one!" He heaved a sigh, and she thought it best that  
she just shut up for a while.

When they arrived back at the loft they settled into a more normal conversation.

"_What do you want for dinner?  
_"_I don't care." _

"_I'll clean up, you go take a shower."  
_"_I think I'll need a sponge bath!"_

"_Do you want to watch the news?"  
_"_Do you want me to fall asleep on the couch?"_

"_While you're up, can you bring me something to drink?"  
_"_What do you want?" _

"_You left the seat up on the toilet again."  
_"_Yeah, well you left to down this morning."_

"_Gates said what!"  
_"_I told her to call Chief Reinhardt. That shut her up!"_

By bedtime, the watch seemed to have been forgotten.

Kate finished up in the bathroom and slipped into her side of the bed just as Rick exited the walk-in closet.  
She could hear him jiggling something in his hand, and when he sat down on his side of the bed, she saw  
that it was the watch. He held it up reverently before placing it on the edge of his nightstand.

She waited to hear his usual nighttime endearments, but all she heard that night as he turned out the light was…

"I know a jeweler in the Diamond District that might be able to fix it."

* * *

_Author's Note: I know it's a short chapter, but it ended at a nice spot, and I wanted the finale to be separate from this._


	4. Part III

**The Watch (Part III)**

The thing about nursery rhymes and fairy tales, that no one ever told him as a kid…was that  
they were all true! It was something he discovered as a writer. Take Hansel and Gretel for  
instance, sometimes parents _do_ want to kill their children. Or how about The Three Little Pigs?  
Poorly constructed buildings _do_ fall down. And let's not forget Hey Diddle Diddle. Drugs really  
will fuck with your head. And then there was his favorite, the one that was annoying him all day.  
Humpty Dumpty!

He wasn't asking all the king's horses and the king's men to try and put the guts back inside  
an oversized clumsy egg. He was just trying to get his watch fixed, but it seemed that what  
held true for Humpty also held true for his watch. You can't uncrack an egg. He'd spent all  
morning and well into the afternoon in the Diamond District going from jeweler to jeweler,  
trying to find someone willing to even try and repair his watch. They all laughed, most tried  
to sell him a new one and a few offered to find him a duplicate, or told him to look on ebay. Ebay!

Back at his apartment, he got online and tracked down the manufacturer in Switzerland. He  
called and talked to a representative. He was asked to e-mail a picture of his watch along with  
his request and that they would get back with him. He did. He received an e-mail reply two  
hours later.

_Dear Sir, we regret to inform you that your make and model of watch had been discontinued for  
three years and there are no parts available to attempt a repair…blah…blah…blah_. It rambled on  
and it ended with them trying to sell him a new watch. It was a poor ending to his crappy day.

Kate came home to his foul mood. She didn't even have to ask how it went. He sulked on the  
couch and aimlessly channel surfed the rest of the evening. She heated up leftovers and made  
sure he was fed. She even recreated one of his bizarre ice cream concoctions for dessert in a  
feeble attempt to cheer him up. He just picked at it till she took the melted remnants away  
from him. As she poured the milky soup down the drain she knew that one good thing would  
come from today. Now he could let go of his old watch and go buy himself new one.

…..

A month later, Kate was getting tired of looking at the watch shrine still sitting on the corner of  
his nightstand. _Damn, she didn't realize he could be so stubborn! _She'd all but given up trying to  
get him to buy a new one. She stopped pointing out watches to him whenever they happened to  
be out window shopping. She quit leaving magazines lying around the apartment opened to ads  
for watches. She even quit her most obvious ploy of asking him "What time is it?" five or six  
times a day.

Kate could only berate herself when the solution finally came to her as she drove home from work  
one day. How could she not have thought of it sooner? She took the next left instead of her usual  
right. She had a stop to make before she could go home.

…..

She woke earlier than usual the next morning. Today was the day. She had waited for the weekend.  
She was nervous about how he would react to her gift. She snuck into the closet and removed the  
small square box from where she had hidden it. It was wrapped in silver paper and tied off with a  
shiny blue bow. She carried the box and an envelope with a handwritten card over to his nightstand  
and set them down next to his broken watch. Next came the risky part of her plan. She carefully  
picked up the watch pieces and slipped them into the pocket of her bathrobe. She was committed  
now. She left him sleeping and went to the kitchen to make breakfast.

It was the smell of bacon that woke him ten minutes later. _Best wake up call ever! _He stretched and  
opened his eyes to the sun peeking through the curtains. His hand reached out to the other side of  
the bed. It was empty and cold. _Ok, scratch that! Second best wake up call ever._

He turned his head to check the digital read out on the clock that sat on his nightstand.

He never did see the time. A silver box blocked his view. He sat up to get a better look.

_What the hell did she go and do?_

He really didn't want another watch. He was content to just using his phone as a replacement timepiece.  
He picked up the box and card and set them in his lap. His hand then shot back and slapped the empty  
spot on the nightstand. _Damn it, she took it!_

She really knew how to put a relationship to the test. They had the apartment to themselves this weekend  
so he grabbed up the items and headed to the kitchen clad only in his boxers determined to put an end to  
this. He almost lost his resolve when he saw her. Why did she have to look so…so…domestic? It made her  
even more beautiful.

She smiled when she saw him. "'Morning."

He didn't reply. _Don't give in, don't give in. _He sat down on a barstool across from where she was working  
and made a show of placing the box and card on the bar.

The smile left her face and her brow wrinkled with worry.

"I can't believe you did this Kate."

Uh oh, he just used her name. He was definitely upset.

She tried to explain. "I…" But he wouldn't let her.

"You of all people Kate. How could you do _this?" _Both of his hands were open, gesturing at the box.

She tried to speak again. "It's not…"

"You get upset when I try to buy you a toothbrush much less an expensive piece of jewelery!"

"Rick…"

"So why do you think its ok for you to go and spend an obscene amount of money on a watch that I clearly told you I did not want?"

Kate took the wooden spoon that she'd been stirring the eggs with and slapped it down on the counter next to her.

There it was, he'd woken the dragon. He knew what was coming. He was ready. But what she did next baffled him.

She didn't yell back at him. She didn't look mad. She just sighed, and what she said next confused him even more.

"I didn't buy you a watch."

"What?"

Kate slid the pan with the eggs from the fire and turned off the burner. He watched as she came around the bar and sat  
down beside him. She picked up the box and handed it to him.

"Just open it. And if you're still mad, I'll understand."

He took a moment to try and read her face before he gave up; he pulled off the bow and began tearing the paper from  
around the box.

When the paper was off, he looked back up and found her smiling at him, there was something about the look in her  
eyes.

Something had changed. _What the hell was going on?_

He had to see. He opened the box.

What he saw inside…well, it said what he'd been waiting to hear since their first night together.

He knew she wanted him, but in the months that had passed she never said what he wanted to hear the most. That she loved him.

But this…this was more than he ever expected.

"Kate, I…?"

Her fingers to his lips stopped any more words, and she handed him the card that accompanied the box.

He opened the flap and pulled out a plain single sided card. And there, written in her delicate script, was one line.

_~For the Life You Saved_ ~

The words started to blur as the tears welled up.

He set the card down and pulled the watch from the box. It was her watch. She'd given him her watch! He knew what it  
meant to her, and now…what it meant to him. She loved him!

He pulled her into a tight embrace, determined to never doubt her love again...and to never, ever let her go.

* * *

_Well, that was fun! I'd love to know what you thought. Did you see it coming? Coming Up Next: THE RING_


	5. The Ring Part 1

**The Ring**

It wasn't something he noticed the first time it happened. It was just an innocuous motion  
that barley garnered a second glance. But soon, it became like one of those trendy pop  
song that played on the radio nearly every hour on the hour. It was happening at least  
fifteen to twenty times a day. Now…he couldn't help but notice.

Rick noticed that in the months since they had solved her mother's case, Kate had developed  
an unconscious habit. Her mother's ring, normally hidden away under her clothing and resting  
securely against her heart, was now hanging on its chain out in the open and her hands were  
fidgeting with it on and off throughout the day.

Sometimes she would reach up and lightly touch it, and other times he would see her hand so  
tightly fisted around the ring he half expected her to cry out "_My Precious_!" Other times, like  
just now at her desk, she would take hold of it and zip it back and fourth along the chain. Zip…  
to the right…zip…back to the left, she did this for minutes at a time. Then she might stop, press  
it against her lips and run the band back and forth from one corner of her mouth to the other.  
Once or twice he'd seen her even pop it in her mouth. She didn't realize she was doing it, and  
he was beginning to worry that her "habit" was turning into an obsession.

He was sure her shrink would know why she was doing what she was doing, but he was hesitant  
to try and psychoanalyze his "new girlfriend", especially if he wanted to keep "said girlfriend". So  
he had stayed quiet and watched, and waited…and waited.

He squirmed in his chair next to her desk while he waited and tried his best not to look. He'd read  
the CPR poster on the wall next to him twice; he counted the stains on the floor tiles nearest him  
and then divided them by the number of tiles counted to get an average of stains per tile. He tried  
to practice the lip reading techniques he picked up as research for one of his Derrick Storm novels  
years ago, but gave up after he tried to read Gates' lips through her office window and wound up  
with "I have manly hands full but beware to head rub the trek farce." His hands went to his face in  
frustration and a loud sigh escaped his lips.

"Castle, you don't have to stay."

Peeking through his fingers, he found her looking at him. _Crap! _ He had to look at her now. He  
removed his hands from his face. The first thing he noticed when he looked her way was that  
her hands were now clasping her coffee cup. _Thank God!_

"I don't mind waiting."

"You sure? I've got at least another half hour of paperwork before I'm done here."

"Your job is my job," he replied as nonchalantly as he could. "I observe you, remember?"

She raised her eyebrows at his comment. "Yeah, well you've been doing a poor job of it today."

He ignored being called out by her comment and kept on talking. "Besides, I can't leave…" He reached  
out and plucked the half empty mug from her hands. "…you're my ride home." As he moved to stand,  
he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, seriously breaking her PDA rule at the precinct  
before rushing off to refill her coffee. He chose her ire over her questions and he could feel her glare  
follow him into the break room.

Freshening up her coffee only took a minute and he was less than eager to return to his seat. As he  
approached her desk, his step faltered when he saw that she had picked up where she left off, a pen  
in her right hand and the ring back in her left. When he set the mug down on her desk she abruptly  
pushed back in her chair and turned to confront him. He knew he had only two options, fight or flight.  
He chose the latter.

"I've gotta' run to the bathroom," he barked out before she had a chance to speak. As he turned away,  
he thought he heard her mumble.

"_Yeah, you better run."_

The bathroom was at the end of the corridor to the left. When he got there, he snuck a right into the  
stairwell instead. The stairs were hot and the air was stagnant with the haze of cigarette smoke from  
the precinct's nicotine addicts "sneaking" a quick fix. By the time he descended to the basement, his  
jacket was off and he was sweating. He felt like he'd just jumped out of the proverbial frying pan and  
into the fire.

He exited the stairwell into a stark white hallway. The basement was always cold and cool air quickly  
found its way inside his shirt and elicited a shiver as goose bumps raised the hairs on his arms and  
tickled their way across his torso. Bold black letters stenciled onto the wall before him offered two choices,  
the word **Morgue**, with a slightly crooked arrow pointing to the left, and the word **Maintenance** with an  
arrow pointing to the right. He turned to his left. A few hundred feet down the corridor he pushed through  
the pair of rubber sealed double doors and into the morgue. He was surprised by the tableau playing out  
before him.

Lanie Parish, dressed in a scrub gown and wearing a full face shield and latex gloves, was wielding a pair  
of bolt cutters and deftly cutting the exposed ribs of a male cadaver while singing along with Nina Simone's  
"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl". As lovely as it was, it wasn't her singing that surprised him. It was actually  
seeing her do her job. In all the years he'd been at the Twelfth, he'd never actually seen her performing an  
autopsy. They were always called down to the morgue after Lanie's work was done. He found it a little  
disconcerting to see someone so feminine engaged in something so gruesome. He was also shocked when  
she looked up and yelled at him.

"Out!"

He didn't reply right away and the confusion on his face made Lanie yell at him again.

"I said get out!"

This time he found his tongue. "What did I do?"

"Didn't you see the sign on the door?"

He made a quick backwards glance at the doors. "What sign?" He turned back in time to see Lanie shake  
her head and sigh.

"Go back out and read it, and I'll join you there in a minute." She turned her back on him to end the  
conversation and to head over to a sink mounted against the back wall of the room.

Castle pushed his way out back out the doors and turned back to look for the sign that was supposed to  
be posted on the other side. As the automatic door shut, there was a slight hiss as the doors seals met in  
the middle, and there on the left door, posted near eye level, was a bright orange sign that read: "**Caution!  
Autopsy in Progress" **at the top of the sign with a giant biohazard emblem in the center followed by the  
word "**Biohazard" **emblazoned at the bottom. _How could he have missed that?_

A loud clang pulled his attention from the sign and to the windows set into the doors. He could see Lanie at  
the back of the room standing in front of a large stainless steel sink. The loud noise must have come from  
the bolt cutters being dropped inside. He could see the handles sticking out just above the edge. He watched  
as she removed her latex gloves and disposed of them in a trash can marked: **Hazardous Waste**. She then  
pulled on a new pair of gloves and then took off her face shield and hung it from a hook near the autopsy table.  
Next she pulledoff her scrub gown and threw it in a hamper, and then her new gloves joined the old ones.  
Once she was disrobed she used a separate smaller sink to scrub her hands.

He never realized just how dangerous her job was. Every autopsy she performed could potentially expose her  
to Hepatitis C, HIV, Aids or any number of STD's and other blood bourn pathogens. He suddenly had a whole  
new respect for her job.

"Wow."

He spoke the word aloud. Just in time for Lanie to hear as she came through the doors.

"Wow is right Castle." She had noticed his sweaty dress shirt. "What happened to you?"

He pulled at the front of his shirt to circulate some more air. "I thought taking the stairs would be good for me,  
but these stairs will only give me lung cancer or a heat stroke."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about the stairs," Lanie said as she playfully slapped at his hand. "It's the asbestos in this  
place that will kill you first."

"Great…I did not need to know that."

"Hey, you started it." Lanie cut her eyes past Castle to the empty hallway behind him. "Where's your girl?"

_Not within earshot, thank God! _"Beckett…" (He put the emphasis on her name) "…is upstairs where I left her."

Lanie could count on one hand the number of times Castle had ever ventured into the morgue on his own.  
Something had to be amiss. Her hands went to her hips and eyes narrowed in response. "What's wrong?"

He was startled by her ability to read the situation, but he wasn't about to admit she was right, at least …not  
right away.

"Oh, um…nothing." He went on the defensive. "I had some time to kill. Can't a guy just come down for a visit?"

"No. I'm busy."

Her directness unnerved him, and also, he didn't like talking about Kate where others might hear. He looked  
over Lanie's shoulder and then turned to glance back down the hallway. Before he could turn back to respond,  
Lanie's hand was on his arm and he was being pulled through a door marked **DR. Lanie Parish**. She could  
tell Castle wanted privacy. Her office was small and cramped, but it was hers.

"Ok, spill," she demanded as soon as the door shut behind them.

He knew he couldn't win this one, so he gave in. "It's Kate. She's been doing this thing…" He hesitated before  
continuing. He didn't want it to sound like he was complaining.

When he saw Lanie's eyes go wide with speculation, he hurried to finish the sentence.

"…with her mothers necklace."

Her eyes fell in disappointment. "Oh, that."

"Oh that!" Castle parroted back rather loudly. "You mean…you've noticed too?"

"About a month ago."

His hands went to his hips for emphasis. "And?"

"And what…what do you want me to do?"

"Can't you talk to her?"

"And piss her off, no way!" Lanie wagged a finger at him. "She's all yours now."

His hands left his hips and now they were pleading. "But now that means I've got more to lose."

"Sorry Castle," she brushed past him and opened the door. "But, you know the old saying." She stepped out  
into the hallway and turned to look at him. He looked confused. "Be careful what you wish for." She gave him  
a quick wink and a smile before she headed back to the Morgue.

"But…!"

"No buts!" She called out as she pushed through the double doors.

He tried to follow, but she turned around and held the doors fast. He could see her face at the window. She  
was still smiling and her finger was point to the sign on the door. The half hearted smirk that crossed his  
face had her laughing as she turned away.

_Damn!_

He trudged back down the hallway, past the stairwell and came to a stop when he reached the elevator.  
He pressed the button and slipped back into his jacket while he waited for the door to open. _What the  
hell was he supposed to do now?_

He was deep in thought during the ride up to the bullpen, and when the elevator door opened he stepped  
out without looking…and plowed into someone.

"Hey!"

"Oh, sorry," he apologized and as their bodies separated, he was still unaware of who he ran into. Then he  
saw her face. _Crap!_

"I thought you went to the bathroom?" From her tone he could tell it was Detective Beckett asking the question.  
He needed to think…_and fast!_

"I did…and, then I went downstairs…to…look at the FBI wanted posters in the lobby while you finished up." _Whew,  
good one! _"Where were you going?" _Yes! Put the question back on her and off of me._

"I was looking for you."

_Crap again! _

Before he could comment her left hand was on his chest and she was pushing him back into the elevator.  
Her right hand dug into her jacket pocket and she pulled out her keys. "Here, you want something to do…"  
She dangled the keys at him. "…you can drive us home."

_It had to be a trick. She never let him drive, never!_

When he didn't reach out to take them, she reached for his hand and placed them in his open palm. _Huh?  
_She was smiling as she closed his fingers around them. She then stepped to his left and turned to face the  
elevator. As she did this, her slipped her arm through his and pulled herself closer. Seconds later he felt her  
head resting on his shoulder. He relaxed too, and then placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"No PDA in the bullpen Castle."

He stiffened, and waited for what he had been trying to avoid.

She pivoted into him, pressed herself against his chest and slid her hands around his neck. "And this isn't the  
bullpen Castle, it's the elevator." Her lips were on his before his brain could catch up. His brain was incapable  
of thought as she pushed his back up against the elevator wall. He was lost in her. He reached his arms around  
her to pull her in closer, but Kate pulled away as the elevator began to slow.

She turned around and tugged on his arm as the doors slid open. "Come on Castle, let's go home."

_Driving…good._ _Home…good. _His brain still wasn't functioning properly.

They both unwound on the drive home. They talked about their last case and their plans for the three day weekend  
ahead. Kate was still a little surprised that Gates had put her into the "Family" rotation at work. The captain never  
said anything to her, but she noticed that she had more and more weekends off, and she was rarely "On Call"  
anymore. The "Crap" rotations were always assigned to the unmarried Detectives, it was a given with the job.  
She wasn't married. _Yet. _But she wasn't about to question it.

_Wait, what! Did she just consider marriage, again?_ It had been popping into her head a lot lately, mainly when she  
least expected it.

She looked over at Castle as he cursed under his breath and struggled to cut across three lanes of traffic. _Marriage?  
_Her anxiety level shot up and she unconsciously reached for her mothers ring. Zip…to the right. Zip…to the left. Back  
and forth. It comforted her.

Castle noticed. "So, we still on for your Dad's on Sunday?

"Huh, oh yeah." She let go if the ring. "One o'clock, we bring the potato salad…"

"And the wine." He added.

"And the wine," she repeated with a smile. He loved his wine collection, it was one of his hobbies that he was trying to  
include her in. She was now familiar with the five basic steps to tasting wine. The differences in glassware, and more  
recently he was teaching her about proper serving temperatures. She loved a good glass of wine, but the extent of her  
knowledge had been limited to "white goes with fish, red with meat". She never thought of wine tasting as being a hobby,  
but as hobbies go…she rather enjoyed it.

"Everyone still going?" She asked.

"Mother and Alexis are still coming. They both like your dad and they're looking forward to spending time together  
as a family."

_Family. Marriage. Kids. Shit! _Her hand grasped at the ring again. Zip…zip…zip.

_Shit! _Rick didn't have to look, he could hear it. _She's doing it again!_ He needed help, and he realized there was only  
one person left he could go to.

Her dad.


End file.
